The present invention relates to systems, computer-implemented methods and computer program products for high-performance XML processing in a Common Event Infrastructure.
Service-Oriented Architectures enable the creation of composite applications that are comprised of reusable, loosely coupled service components. Using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Service Oriented Architecture clients can invoke web services built atop the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) without explicit support for a wide variety of transport protocols and formats. A SOAP façade may even be constructed that sits in front of a legacy service so as to enable web service virtualization where clients invoke a virtualized version of the underlying service, thereby mitigating the need to understand intricate details of the service's implementation.
One application of Service Oriented Architecture principles is in the area of IT Services Management (usually referred to as ITSM) where XML and SOAP integrate for control and monitoring of network and computing resources. In this context, a corresponding management framework supports a Common Event Infrastructure (CEI) that uses XML Common Base Event (CBE) messages to relay the occurrence of events to a suitable process for subsequent analysis. For example, a Common Event Infrastructure server may deliver event messages to interested subscribers and/or store event messages in a suitable database to enable further processing, such as during subsequent correlation, query operations, event message management operations, problem determination and off-line auditing.
However, SOAP-based interactions may require XML parsing, object de-serialization processing, the creation of in-memory objects that represent the XML-encoded data and/or other SOAP-based payload processing, which can burden the corresponding Common Event Infrastructure server(s). For example, the additional processing requirements of such SOAP interactions may lead to performance issues, especially in the context of Common Event Infrastructure services management as the volume of event messages grows higher, e.g., as a result of the complexity, level of automation, and/or increasing size of an enterprise.
To address the additional processing requirements of Service Oriented Architecture implementations, specialized Service Oriented Architecture appliances have been introduced which are built purposely for performing traditional middleware functions. The appliance form-factor can provide a secure, consumable packaging for deploying certain middleware activities. However, the specialized Service Oriented Architecture appliances may not be able to maintain a level of flexibility required by the Common Event Infrastructure server. For example, a Common Event Infrastructure server may interact in nonstandard and extensible ways with the rest of the Service Oriented Architecture management framework. Therefore, a fundamental trade-off exists between the flexibility of a software-based Common Event Infrastructure server and the high performance of specialized Service Oriented Architecture appliances.